Thursday, October 24, 2024, 1:06 p.m.
| Updated 1:47 p.m.
On the same day that the arrests of four individuals who promoted a campaign against Vinicius before the derby were revealed, the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, and the president of the League, Javier Tebas, signed an agreement this Thursday to be more “forceful” in joint action in the fight against the “scourge” of racism and hate speech in sport, which will have a public endowment of 50,000 euros.
As explained by Saiz and Tebas after the signing of the agreement, the duration of the collaboration will initially be three years and its development will focus on carrying out actions between both entities in terms of prevention and detection of these hate speeches.
With tools such as, for example, ‘MOOD’, which LaLiga gives to the Ministry, the monitoring strategy carried out by the Spanish Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia (Oberaxe) will be optimized through active listening on social networks of actions racist, xenophobic and all speeches of that type.
The agreement also includes a commitment to work with the LaLiga Foundation for the Future Hobby project, whose objective is to raise awareness among young people about the importance of eradicating violence in sport, especially in football.
Both representatives stressed that it is a “historic” agreement because football is a “very powerful speaker” capable of reaching a global audience and raising awareness about the importance of combating racism, xenophobia and hate speech in general.
They also emphasized that the situations of racism and discrimination experienced by footballers like Vinicius and Nico Williams represented a “turning point” in social awareness about the need to denounce these behaviors.
In another vein, according to the latest Oberaxe report, in September there was a decrease in hate speech on social networks towards unaccompanied minors, since it went from 19.1% in July to 1% and, in Regarding typology, 26% incite violence with threats against migrants.
Among the reported content, social platforms only removed 10% and the report highlights the aggressiveness of the messages and the poor reliability of the source, which are often based on hoaxes and stereotypes.
Finally, Saiz reiterated that education and the promotion of a culture of respect and inclusion in all areas is “fundamental” and that this agreement seeks to build a “society free of hate speech.”
